Unfulfilled: Shtip hospital construction to “begin between 2014 and 2018”

The new Clinical Hospital in Shtip will be built on the present hospital location, replacing the old Department of Paediatrics building. The present-day Paediatrics building will be renovated to the requirements of the Medical Faculty in Shtip, the Infective Ward building will maintain its present function, while the position of the great hospital building is planned for future development. The clinic will include the following wards: surgery, urology, orthopaedics and trauma, OB/GYN, ophthalmology, ENT, internal medicine, chest and TB, neurology, psychiatry, maxillofacial surgery, paediatrics, neurosurgery, oncology (with chemotherapy and radiation therapy), and venereal. The new Clinic will have a capacity of 354 hospital beds, 300 of which will be situated in the new building. The object will also house technical and service departments, forensic medicine and pathology wards. The ground floor will house the emergency ward, the diagnostic radiology department, central wardrobes, lab, pharmacy, and sterilising department. The Shtip Clinical Hospital will house 17 ambulatory surgery centres with dedicated diagnostic and treatment areas, day hospitals for transfusion, dialysis, day surgery with three small operating rooms, chemotherapy, psychiatry, and drug addiction treatment centre. A low-energy building, the object’s peak demand of primary energy is projected around 90 kWh/m². [Deadline: Construction commences 2014-18. Budget: €37,000,000]

ARGUMENT

The promised Clinical Hospital (CH) in Shtip offers a similar story to the Skopje Clinical Centre, as the familiar elements of empty promises, delays, and rising projected costs are seen again. Although still in progress, this object can be classified an unfulfilled promise due to several aspects.

The building of the CH has been ‘in progress’ since 2013. Foundations should have been laid in October last year, but no news since.

Investments to reconstruct the present-day hospital have been announced in the ruling party’s programme since 2011, while an entirely new object has figured since 2014. Some mix-up is evident in the terms used in the 2011 programme, as there is talk of a “university clinical hospital.” Things have been ‘in progress’ ever since.

The party booklet printed for the third snap elections, reporting on the 2011-14 period, also claims the matter is ‘in progress’:

The activities to outline the basic project are entering their final phase. The first phase of the international call for construction bids is underway in accordance with the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB). We expect the tender procedure will be finalised by the beginning of June 2014, when construction should commence. The total value of this investment is about €30 million.

The object’s foundations will be laid and construction will commence in October 2015.

The projected cost of the new object finally became known in 2015. During the adoption of the Law for CEB Loans, it became apparent the construction of the new CH would not cost 30 or 37 million euro, as some claimed or announced earlier, but €47 million (probably including the required medical equipment).

Interestingly, the 2014-18 VMRO-DPMNE programme claims that “construction will begin sometime between 2014 and 2018,” which makes for a rather elastic timeline. This is inadequate, a simple word game which grants the promising party the freedom to commence construction in December 2018 and still consider their promise kept.

Taking into consideration that construction work has still not commenced, despite several promises to do so, this can be considered an unfulfilled promise. Unlike the Skopje Clinical Centre, however, matters are indeed in progress and have reached a certain pre-construction phase.

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